High bandwidth telecommunication channels are frequently required in the instances when a user needs to transmit a digital data stream. Often the data stream includes data of different priority, ranging from high priority data (e.g., voice communications), which cannot tolerate significant delays, to low priority data (e.g., electronic mail).
Access to a communications network is typically provided by a telecommunications service provider who maintains equipment at a node on the network. Generally, service providers supply access to the network for multiple users. A user can supply multiple data streams. In order to secure sufficient capacity (i.e., bandwidth), users often contract for discrete channels, each channel capable of handling the greatest expected bandwidth requirement of a respective data stream. Typically, a channel is a physical trunk associated with a particular communications, a time slot allocation in a time division multiplexing (TDM) system or a specific frequency in a frequency division multiplexing system (e.g., a wavelength region in an optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system).
A user having multiple data streams often must arrange for multiple discrete channels to support the maximum expected bandwidths of each data stream. Often, these channels are operating at a small fraction of the maximum bandwidth. As a result, the user purchases bandwidth capacity well beyond the average bandwidth required, resulting in higher costs than if the discrete channels were operating near maximum capacity at all times.